More On Xbox One's Achievements & Challenges

Microsoft has teased some changes to its wildly popular Gamerscore/achievements system for the Xbox One, and the company has detailed some of them – as well as explaining what Xbox One's new challenges are all about.

At Major Nelson's blog there is an entry by Cierra McDonald, the program manager for the Xbox Live achievements service. McDonald went into detail about the cloud-based achievements and challenges on Xbox One.

Achievements are not limited to games. Music or video apps, for instance, can give them and offer such rewards as early access to content or subscription extensions. However, only games can add to your Gamerscore

Will be surfaced more on the Xbox One dashboard and the achievement gallery will look better

Developers can show you how far you've progressed in a game's achievement even before you start up the game

The dashboard will show you which achievements your friends have recently unlocked

You can see video clips of the moment the achievement was earned

Challenges

Challenges offer a reward for an opportunity completed by a set amount of (real-life) time, and like achievements give you an icon

Do not add to your Gamerscore

Can span multiple titles, unlike Achievements

Challenges can engage a community. Ex. A headshot weekend where everyone has to get so many headshots over a three-day period. Everyone will get the reward if completed.